How to make a calabash bowl
Back at the end of April I showed some pics of our friend Pontus carving us a beautiful calabash bowl. If you were really paying attention you might have noticed Rebecca holding freshly-picked calabash in one of the pics I posted yesterday. Here is the play-by-play on how you can turn the hard green orbs into functional and decorative serving items.
Decide how you would like the finished product to look and then cut open the calabash accordingly.
They are quite hard so this might take a while.
The inside is filled with inedible mush.
Using a strong spoon scoop all of the mush out.
Wash it off and it is ready to carve. If you plan on painting it, which is also very common, let the calabash thoroughly dry in the sun first. Have fun!
Cool! I’ll take two please 😉
They sell them for quite a bit, which is understandable of course because the finished product, if nicely decorated, does take some time. It seems much more rewarding to make it yourself though.
Do you have to treat the inside first? ie: is there and transfer of unwanted toxins? They totally would make great “gifts”.
I see no reference on the net that says that they need to be treated. We have seen them for sale here with the insides painted. We asked the guy selling them and he told us it was acrylic paint that he used.
Well, that’s totally new to me, thank-you!
For all the time I spent in Africa I never saw that done, nor did I see them grow.
Cheers!
Mike
You’re welcome!
Very, very nice!!! So kewl how you can take something from nature and turn it into a bowl like that…
What a cool project. And I love that last shot, of ZTC at anchor. Sure looks like paradise to me!
The bowls will make nice gifts.
Although this article is a year old, I’d just like to say that I made my own bowls 20 years ago in Jamaica. They stand in water, and get abused, but still keep it together as my favorite bowls! I can’t imagine painting them. Naturally, there is no toxin. I carved designs in the skin with a pen knife, while still green, which lets light through to intrigue one while holding in hand.
We had a friend carve one for us as we enjoyed the afternoon at a waterfall in St. Lucia. We have it on board and love it.